Weird IFR departure situation

[meritflyer]

Today I took off out of a large class B airport. I had lifted off rwy 35 then before I was even a couple hundred feet AGL, the tower told me to turn left heading 260. I asked the controller if he wanted my turn at the departure end and he replied "No."

The weird thing is I crossed right over the departure ends of two other runways which were actively being used for departures at a very low altitude.

There was rwy 35, 36L, and 36R. I crossed 36L/R which is the big airplane runway (10-12000 ft).

It just seemed odd since the crosswind-like turn came very very early.

Doug - it was the SLC9.TCH departure.

 

[BobDDuck]

Not being that ATC controller (or any ATC controller for that matter) I cant say for sure but I would bet they wanted to push a plane out behind you so getting you off the departure corridor was of higher importance then incoming traffic on the other runways. I see it all the time with the Dash8s out of CLT and PHL where they will give them a 30 degree turn off the runway. I watched them launch 5 in a row in alternating directions off of runway 8 in PHL the other day with about 1 mile of seperation between each. We went 1 mile after the last one but straight out.

 

[EatSleepFly]

Doug - it was the SLC9.TCH departure.

Didn't you get the whole ATIS?

"THE...SALT LAKE NINER DEPARTURE...IS...A RADARVECTOR DEPARTURE."

(Joking... I think its retarded that they include that bit in the ATIS)

Anyways, what's weird about it? What altitude did you turn at? Did you turn as soon as they told you? Seems normal to me, they probably just decided after you had already started your takeoff roll that they wanted to turn you instead of flying runway heading. Like Bob said, maybe to get somebody out behind you on 35 or 34R.

They don't always ask for turns at the departure end. In that case, make it at 400' or whenever they tell you, whichever is higher.

 

[Maximilian_Jenius]

Is this the SLC departure when south ops are in affect (rwys 16L/R) as soon as 400 agl the planes are making an immediate right turn to "two-four-zero"?

 

[daveatc]

If you want some super boring reading, here's the ATC regs on successive radar departures.

http://www.faa.gov/ATPUBS/ATC/Chp5/atc0508.html#5-8-3

As long as your initial departure routes diverge by 15 degrees or more within 1 mile of the runway end, you're good to go. If you set it up right, you can do the first one 15degrees left, the second 15 degrees right, and the third one straight out!

 

[TeddyG]

It's exactly that. we'll tell aircraft to fly heading xxx shortly after lift off in order to expedite your turn for traffic as long as the aircraft r on diverging courses then we keep blasting them a mile or not. So dont find it to be weird just pay close attention to the departure line and those on final. You might of taken off during a busy outbound push.

 

[JayAre]

Sometimes you can wave to the tower when doing this DP. Depending on what your driving.

I still think KVGT had one of the funkyiest DP's

 

[casey]

Today I took off out of a large class B airport. I had lifted off rwy 35 then before I was even a couple hundred feet AGL, the tower told me to turn left heading 260. I asked the controller if he wanted my turn at the departure end and he replied "No."

think about it for a minute. If you turn west you are going to cross over either the runways themselves (turn now) or the extended centerline (turn later). In either case you are going to conflict with the runways you are crossing, so which scenario is better?

Wait to turn and you are keeping your runway busy for longer, and take longer to clear the parallels. Turn now and you clear your runway faster and are past the other runways sooner.

Early turns are not a big deal. When i was a private pilot tower had me turn to cross the parallel in austin all the time (just dont hit the tower). At bigger airports like newark, the DP includes a low turn that will take you over the other runway.